Archive for February 22, 2013

This morning CNN extended Starting Point by a full hour to cover the latest Oscar Pistorius courtroom drama, thus hammering home a predicament the network now faces as it works behind the scenes to ready the next show which will occupy CNN’s morning timeslot.

Extending Starting Point creates an illusion the network really should be running away from as fast as it can; that Starting Point is still relevant. It’s not. It’s a dead show walking; its anchor soon to be dispatched to longform production exile (self-induced or otherwise). The sooner CNN embraces this new paradigm the better position it will be in when its new morning show debuts with Chris Cuomo and whoever CNN pairs with him (likely to be Erin Burnett).

CNN can ill-afford to create confusion for its viewers when the new show launches. It needs to acclimate them to where things are going. CNN does not achieve this by keeping Starting Point around or, worse, elevating its profile by keeping it on the air past its scheduled run time. There is nothing to be gained from running Starting Point over now. Whatever ratings gain the show achieves from such tactics is completely offset by the fact the show is already dead and the network is only building it up higher when it comes time to kill it which makes the fall all the harder and the changeover to the new show more difficult from a viewer standpoint.

Starting Point needs to die and it needs to die as soon as possible. Kill the show now and put on substitute anchors doing general news. Create a transition period between what was and what is going to be. The longer CNN keeps the show on the air and O’Brien anchoring it, the tougher the transition will be.

“The Bully Effect: An Anderson Cooper Special” chronicles the journeys of a bullied child, a grieving parent, a victim of violence, and a filmmaker turned activist. Each has become a powerful foot soldier in the high-stakes battle against bullying, inspiring a grassroots movement that has helped spark sweeping changes from school policies to state laws to federal legislation.

“The Bully Effect: an Anderson Cooper Special,” presented in partnership with Cartoon Network and Stop Bullying: Speak Up will premiere on Thursday, February 28th at 10pm ET. The special will re-air on Sunday, March 3rd at 8pm and on Saturday, March 9th at 8pm.

“Bullying can have devastating consequences for children, parents and educators, and I’m very proud of our continuing work to focus attention on it,” said Cooper. “Families, schools, and organizations across the country are wrestling with how best to address the often complex issues surrounding bullying, and we want to do all we can to help them in those efforts,” he added.Continue reading →

CNBC is far and away the television ratings leader in the financial cable news business. Now, evidence arrives that its executives, producers and reporters are going to great lengths to maintain its status.

The channel has adopted a policy that prohibits guests from appearing on rival channels amid breaking news if they want to be seen by CNBC’s larger audience.

The tension over the policy with one of its peers offers a window into the intensity of the cable battles over what’s called booking — landing interviews with key financial players, commentators, insiders and analysts.

“Every network should be trying to hustle to get content that’s distinctive to their channel,” said Andrew Morse, president of Bloomberg Television’s U.S. operations. “That’s our job. We’re in the news business.”

But Morse said Bloomberg doesn’t try to dictate who can appear elsewhere.